Poetry reading:Brigit Pegeen Kelly, author of The Orchard, Song, and To the Place ofTrumpets

>From the beginning, Christians have encountered cultures whose values theyfound alien or even hostile. Yet such cultures are precisely the ones inneed of redemptive evangelization. Whether insisting that Jerusalem hasnothing to do with Athens or that truth is from God wherever it is found andthat Christians could claim the gold of the Egyptians, Christians cannotescape tension with the cultures they encounter, because Christianity bothasserts a particular truth and makes a universal claim. This tensionincreased as Christians carried witness to their message to culturesthroughout the world. Christians have sometimes condemned alien cultureswholesale; but they have sometimes found "intimations of the Gospel" in themor even absorbed some elements of other cultures into Christian practice andimagery. Writers as varied as Chinua Achebe, Shusaku Endo, Matteo Ricci,and Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz have addressed these issues. Within Westerncultures, cultural traditions alien to Christianity have waxed and wanedover the centuries, from Dante's use of Vergil to Renaissance and Baroquesyntheses of classical and Christian culture. Enlightenment critique ofreligion aimed to establish a purely secular culture, and much modern art,high and low, seems deliberately offensive or brutally indifferent toChristian values. Yet many writers (such as Dostoevsky, T. S. Eliot, EvelynWaugh, Flannery O'Connor, Marilynne Robinson, among many others) havebrought a Christian perspective to modern culture, and John Paul II assertedthat Christians have much to learn from studying the dark literature of the20th century. What does it mean that non- or even anti-Christian theoristslike Slavoj Zizek, Alain Badiou, and Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt havedrawn on Christian ideas in their analyses of contemporary culture? Weinvite papers that probe Christianity's response to the challenge of alienor antagonistic cultures and values from the beginning of Christianity tothe present day, in European and American culture and across the globe.

One-page proposals for papers of about 15 minutes length are due November 4,2005. Proposals to read creative writing are also acceptable forconsideration. We also welcome proposals for roundtable discussions,workshops, or readings with three or more presenters. Participants must beCCL members or agree to join at the conference. Send proposals to Donald G.Marshall, Humanities and Teacher Education Division, Pepperdine University,24255 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu, CA 90263-4225. Inquiries to<mailto:donald.marshall_at_pepperdine.edu> donald.marshall_at_pepperdine.edu.